


Try Again

by ArrivingHellOnHeels



Series: Second, Third and Maybe Fourth Chances [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst?, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Rage, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 05:56:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13517973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArrivingHellOnHeels/pseuds/ArrivingHellOnHeels
Summary: Draco's trying to be a decent human, then he tries to befriend Harry. That second part doesn't go so well...





	Try Again

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so, this is growing. I initially wrote it to be just a writing practice but I’m definitely continuing it. First of all, I’m not happy with how it ended, i get that it is very rushed, i get that. I just didn’t have the energy to fix it and as I said i was going to make it a stand alone.   
> Now... oh now... I’m making it a series and deepening onto Harry’s POV and Draco’s amends.   
> I actually had the idea to edit it later but now I’m probably gonna work the shit out of what I already have. I won’t change what I already posted. I’m keeping it that way even with the rushed ending and everything.

Draco was working on it, alright? He was being decent —even to Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors— tried to keep the sarcasm to the minimum or to his friends, he even got out of his way to help sometimes —like those first years who were having troubles with potions, or consoling the third years whose parents had been sent to Askaban— and he specially, _specially_ tried to keep out of the Trio’s lives. He didn’t need any more of that drama. It was also evident —at least to the Slytherins— that those Gryffindors thought they were the only ones with traumas after the war, so —for sure— Draco and the rest were not up to “trigger” them.

But of course his friends —specially those twatholes of Pansy and Blaise— had to notice. What if Draco was a little tiny bit attracted to _The bloody Saviour?_ Not like he was going to reciprocate anyway. But _of course_ , as the arseholes noticed, they _had_ to do something about it. Even if Draco had done an amazing job at trying to avoid any interaction with _him._

 _“_ If you are already friends with the Loony then you should at least use it for something Draco. What happened with the Slytherin cunningness?”

“I already told you a thousand times to stop calling her that Blaise. And I’m not going to _use_ Luna for anything, she’s my friend.” Would answer Draco with a murderous look on his face.

“Okay, okay,” said Pansy “but you are not going to cheat _me_ into believing you haven’t talked about _him_ with her. That’s the only-”

“Oh, so you _are_ talking about him with Luna, aren’t you?” supplied Theo slyly, suddenly forgetting he was pretending to read.

“Well, of course, he has been. That’s the only reason he’s been able to keep his eyes to himself all year long. Lovegood supplies him with enough amount of Saviour to last him a lifetime.” Answered Millie seeming uninterested but with a huge smile on her face.

And that’s how Draco found himself with a Slytherin —no shit, really it was schemed by the whole group of Slytherin 8th years— plan to, at least, get Potter to notice him — _the right way_ this time— they said.

But first, he wanted to get Luna’s insight.

“Oh, it would be delightful if you could get Harry to realize how not-straight he is Draco. I mean he’s been mooning about you for ages but it might take a more… direct approach for him to realize.” Was Luna’s reaction to the proposal which got her a knowing smile from Pansy. Draco wouldn’t admit how his friend’s words gave him a little hope.

Evidently, he was not going to reach Potter and ask him to Hogsmeade —even if Pansy thought it was a good idea— not after a whole year of ignoring the heck out of each other. But he might just as well start dropping one or other polite comment from time to time. Even if he needed Luna’s help to figure out the _right_ kind of comments.

“Not ‘finally found robes that fit you potter’ but ‘Harry, those robes seem to fit you quite well’ do try to call him Harry, or at least say Potter with a little less venom,” she said.

Pansy agreed “not ‘are they finally feeding you correctly?’ but ‘you seem to be getting quite buff…’ Potter or Harry, whatever you like is okay in my opinion. I mean the ‘Potter’ might become something like your trademark, he’ll immediately know who’s talking” she completed sharing a _giggle_ with Luna.

“Also, you might want to compliment his actions more than his looks” Luna absentmindedly braided her hair “like, ‘that was quite nice of you, _thank you’_ instead of ‘still trying to be a hero?’ that would be very sweet”

Pansy grabbed a strand of Luna’s hair and braided with her “I do know you had tried to compliment him before, darling, but it didn’t seem like the _right way_ to compliment him”

“When did this turn into girls night?!” exclaimed Draco with a grunt. They both _giggled_ again.

And he really did try, mostly the over his actions thing, he still couldn’t admit that —as ruffled as it was— Potter’s hair looked incredibly soft and he desired to run his hands through it forever. He started greeting the _whole trio_ whenever he walked past them in the hallways, he smiled kindly at Harry whenever he caught his glance, he even once attempted to ask him about a transfigurations homework —the idiot was too startled to answer and Granger did so instead— but it discouraged Draco that, every time he approached, it felt as if he gave backwards steps instead of forward with how… angry Potter seemed to get.

One day he even went to Draco to ask him if he was being forced by someone to reach for him. If he was being bullied or… blackmailed. Even with how his heart ached, Draco managed to answer serenely and without snapping that, no he wasn’t being _blackmailed_ into being nice, he could be nice.

“But not with me” was Potter’s answer as he walked away leaving Draco empty.

Nevertheless, he might have believed there was a slight chance for change if it hadn’t been for that potions class.

Slughorn said something about questions regarding Wolfsbane in their NEWTS so they were assigned a partner to prepare it that day. Clearly —with Draco’s luck— that partner happened to be Potter. He wasn’t really minding the fact because Draco could make that potion with his eyes closed so he started organizing everything to get working. Until…

“How do you even know your way around this potion anyway?” Potter said with a doubtful and curious look on his face.

Draco shrugged “I brewed several potions over the summer, focused on the requests on St. Mungo's' board. The one they put when they don’t have enough brewers to supply them.” Another look at Potter’s face showed me his bewilderment “Apparently the ones they leave last are the Wolfsbane and artificial blood supplies, the barbarians.”

“You sent potions to St. Mungo's? How come I didn’t hear about this? It was not part of the community service” Potter’s mind seemed to be on fire like he couldn’t figure how was it possible that Draco didn’t spend his free time setting kittens on fire or cutting bird’s wings.

“Did it anonymously. A potion with my name on it would probably go immediately to the bin; so, I figured it was smarter to keep that to myself” Draco wouldn’t, for the love of Morgana, take his eyes from the potion they didn’t quite start brewing yet.

“Remember that wrongly brewed, this potion turns highly poisonous for werewolves and humans alike” Slughorn decided to supply in that very instant; suggestion which made Potter’s eyes shoot murderously to Draco.

“Bloody fuck Potter! Do you really think so wrongly of me that you think I would poison innocent werewolves under St. Mungos name?” shouted Draco nearly shoving all the ingredients to the floor in his rage. He stormed away from Harry “You know what? I fucking give up! I was trying! I was trying so hard to be a decent person with you for once! I can’t fucking get you out of my head and Pansy figured it might be a good idea to at least be amicable with you if I was not going to ask for a date. But, you know what? I don’t bloody care anymore! I don’t want anything from you! If you think so badly of me that you can much easily believe I have been poisoning people instead of helping them, if you’d rather believe that I would use the only thing I’m good at, the only thing that could bring me back into society to hurt people instead of helping them, then I’m so done with this! There’s no hope in you what-so-ever. You will never think differently of me and I’m just losing my time by trying!” tears of rage uncontrollably ran down Malfoy’s cheeks, he tried —and failed— to dry them with his sleeve as he continued shouting “You asked if I was harassed into talking with you, well, I wasn’t. It was the first thing I’ve done this year thinking about myself. But, care to know what I was indeed harassed to do? Become a fucking Death Eater!!! You know, one of those things you can’t avoid while your mother is being held hostage and will most likely be killed if you don’t do what you are told!!!!!!! But of course no one ever wonders if I wanted to be part of those fucking dumbshits because ‘Malfoy is so bloody mean, of course, he wanted to become a death eater, he probably was so looking forward to it’” sob “I might have been spoiled when I was a kid, I might have been egocentric and a prat but I was never evil. But apparently, as I was shoved at sixteen years old into the ‘wrong’ side of a war I spend my free time poisoning werewolves and crucioing puppies!” when he shut his mouth he immediately stormed out of the room in a swirl of black. Parkinson tried following him but the second he was out of the door it was magically shut so hard that it took Hermione, Slughorn, and Parkinson to try to open it, which they couldn’t.

Harry stood frozen where Malfoy had left him. Hands by his sides, mouth slightly ajar, eyes unnaturally open lost in some kind of void inside of him. He had promised himself and his friends not to worry about others so much anymore, but this, this was his fault. Malfoy was right, the whole year he had done nothing but try to be decent, while Harry had only shoved him off, and answered with attempts at picking a fight. Took him several minutes to react but when he did, he did so by opening the shut door wordlessly and rushing out of it, Parkinson close behind him.

“YOU FUCKING LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SO-CALLED SAVIOUR!! DIDN’T YOU HEAR HIM? HE’S GOT ENOUGH WITH YOUR BULLISHIT!” Shouted the girl after him and, when she caught up, shoved him into a wall with her wand at his throat.

His stare was nearly dead when she looked at his eyes and she nearly didn’t hear him when he spoke: “do you even know where he is?”

She… fuck she hadn’t thought about that. “no” she muttered.

“Well, I might know” he took out an old piece of parchment and opened it, pointed his wand at it and muttered something. His eyes started looking desperately and her stare went to the parchment as well, there were so many names.

“He’s not here, this piece of rubbish is useless Potter” she shouted standing up, running desperately her hands through her hair.

“No, if he doesn’t show I know where he is.” Potter took the piece of parchment with him as he started running down some hallways. She followed him.

A door was already appearing when they were in the middle of one of the hallways and her body nearly froze when she realized where it was. She hadn’t been there but Draco had told her about the place. Fuck.

“How the bloody hell do you always find me, Potter?” they heard as the door closed behind them. Breathings uneasy. Potter signaled her to talk.

“It’s me Draco” she went on through the room and even as it was nearly empty they couldn’t see the boy.

When she and Potter had reached the center of the Room of Requirement she saw her best friend crumbled in a ball, surrounded by slightly scorched things. “Then go away you cow! I don’t want to see you” she sighed, all the bloody work it had taken of her to get Draco to open up a little was lost. All thanks to Scarhead. She looked pointedly at Potter, he still seemed serious and lost.

“I said go away!” Draco shouted and Pansy’s soul crumpled buy the hurt in his voice. They both approached the boy like you would do to an actual dragon, afraid he might lunge at any second. He raised his head and Harry could see the devastation for one second before Draco realized _he_ was there as well. “I think. I said. Go. Away.” His voice was as murderous as the rest of his features.

A couple of minutes passed and Pansy kept thinking of a way to approach Draco without making him more upset, when nothing happened he talked once more. “You come to Sectumsempra me again? Or are you too noble to be the one to kill me? Don’t you want to save the world of the threat once more!” Potter handed his wand to Pansy in front of his bloodshot eyes as he kept approaching. “I do am a spare Death Eater” his voice was hollow, his head buried itself once more on the crook of his elbow, they both heard a loud sob come from Draco, then a murmured “I should have died here.”

Pansy was about to talk, but one look at Potter shut her mouth. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Draco laughed with no humor “you are sorry you didn’t let me die? Yeah, I’m too”

“No,” said Potter, “I’m sorry I made you feel that way.” Pansy felt like an intruder, so she quietly left Potter’s wand over the fireplace and retreated. “I’m sorry I was too blind to notice you were the one who needed my help the most. I’m-”

“Don’t be so entitled, Potter” his name was so spitefully pronounced that it made Harry realize how long it had been since it was said that way.

Potter huffed “okay, then I’m sorry for being a self-centered bastard that still has trouble letting people into his life, and for hoping you might still want to go out with me,” he said this tentatively “I can promise to try to let you in this time”

Draco found himself gapping “unfortunately I do” he was now nearly on top of Potter’s lap, Potter’s arms around his shoulders rubbing circles on his back. “I’m sorry I broke down and shouted at you in front of everyone. Pansy is right, I do am a diva.” He attempted to laugh.

Harry smiled against Draco’s hair “you did have a right to shout at me, I’ve been an arse to you”

“You did have reasons not to trust me… I’ve-” Potter’s finger was over his lips now.

“Let’s start again, would you like that?” Harry held out a hand to Draco who was still on his lap “hey, I’m Harry Potter.”

Draco laughed, he took Harry’s hand firmly “hi, my name is Draco Malfoy”

“Hi Draco, you are quite dazzling and you seem like a nice bloke, would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me on Friday?” Harry would still not let go of Draco’s hand, instead, he took it to his lips and kissed his knuckles.

“Don’t be silly Potter,” Draco laughed pushing Potter jokingly.

“I would rather you call me Harry, just Harry, besides, you haven’t answered my question.” He lifted his brows in a funny way with a bright stupid smile in on his lips.

“Okay, okay, if you insist that much, _Harry_ , I might as well comply with your request”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes”

**Author's Note:**

> Any suggestions are welcome.  
> Kuddos and comments too.  
> Thank you for reading


End file.
